I do not own Animaniacs or any of its characters. The idea that I could does entertain me though. Please enjoy this story as it's my first new fan fiction after quite a long absence from this site. My writing has improved since retiring from fan fiction though, so there should be no worries there.

Please review if you can. I love hearing from people. Even if it is a short message, it'll be greatly appreciated.

Chapter 1: Lament for the Future

This was so much more annoying than Yakko had the tolerance to deal with right now. Maybe he should've opened with a joke.

"Yes sir. I understand that he-" Yakko had tried to get a word in but the studio lead, Thaddeus Plotz, simply slammed his fist on the desk and continued despite clearly having heard a retaliation forming on Yakko's lips.

"Than why don't you DO something about it? He's been driving me crazy these past few weeks. Or months. I'm starting to loose track of the time because of this frustration." Plotz gritted his teeth and pulled at his hair.

Yakko sighed. He wanted to do the same. If he had tried though, he might've tugged at his ears and ripped them off with enhanced force.

The two of them stayed there in silence for a bit after Plotz' mini-episode before the man in question let out a much more frustrated sigh than Yakko had wanted to let out himself and set his hands gently on the table.

"Do you have it?" He asked in a silent voice.

Yakko nodded and reached into his pocket, extracting a Golden Key with the "WB" symbol on it. He promptly set it down at the man's desk. Plotz sat back and wiped his face down in slight relief, not looking at the key or Yakko.

"… Good. You can go." The man finally choked out. The instant he did, Yakko, with his hands in his pockets and a tired look on his face, turned almost immediately to powerwalk out.

"Yakko…"

Yakko stopped.

"… Please, try and get it through to that brother of yours just how serious your situation is. I can't have him stealing something so important off the fly like that again. His actions and your late payments are starting to pile up against you. You either get your acts together or you won't have a place to live anymore." Plotz spoke as if reading from informative document.

"… Right… I understand…" Yakko said in response as he exited the room. Had he looked back he would've noticed a slightly concerned look on the man's face.

Yakko had mellowed out.

His usual zany and spastic self had been almost completely lost to the sands of time. He still talked a lot. He still was sarcastic as all hell. He still couldn't have lactose. It was still him but for the most part, he had changed. For better or worse, he couldn't tell, but the majority of the people he knew didn't seem to mind. Not even his brother and sister.

Throughout Animaniacs' run it was noticed how much calmer the oldest sibling had become as time passed him by. By the time the news hit that the show was ending he had barely acted like the way he did on the show anymore. That didn't change how hard the news came to him and the rest of the cast though. Everyone was currently dealing with it in their own way. Yakko was failing the hardest at it though.

The news had come early enough for Yakko to realize that the lowered amount of money he and his siblings were getting with each passing episode was starting to become a rather huge problem. It had gotten to the point where they could barely keep renting the water tower out. The people who ran the studio at this time weren't insane enough to toss them into it and lock them away for 60 years like before. It didn't solve much of anything. The studio still had a huge problem with keeping newly recruited cartoons under control.

When they came out they hadn't aged a day. It was really odd and stranger still, neither Plotz nor anyone else on the lot could tell them why. They didn't know. It was a good thing not too many people knew the fact that the part about them being in the tower was one of the few things on the show that was the real deal. Only Plotz, Dr. Scratchnsniff, Hello Nurse, and a few others who answer directly to the aforementioned boss really knew to his knowledge. Maybe Ralph did too but then again what would him knowing actually change? It was played up in the show as a makeshift origin story despite there being some truth behind it. People thought it was absurd, of course, just as they did when the Warners were shown beating Death in a game of checkers by cheating.

It had been all but dumb luck that they had been selected for release and given a new show in Animaniacs. It had been a success too; further proving that locking them away because, as the head of the studio from 60 years prior said, "They were the ones who gave the most problems yet had none of the potential for something great" was total bullcrap. It still peeved him that their lucky break came from the fact that the studio was running low on potential cartoon stars wanting to come to them only to maybe get a one-hit wonder and then end up living on the streets shortly after.

That's just how this world worked. Maybe if your hit was strong enough it'd be enough to carry you through your life but for Animaniacs, the money had to be shared and as the titular characters they didn't get enough of it to live on somehow. They had been coasting on luck shortly after episode 99 aired and the production of Wakko's Wish took about a year of kissing up to Plotz and borrowed money to make it through. They were now at a point when it was time to officially send off the show and for everyone to move on with their lives. The cast and crew farewell party has been scheduled and it'll come sooner than Yakko will want it to the way his luck had been going. The money that had been made from the movie had been a surprisingly well amount for a direct-to-video outing. He was still legitimately shocked at how people gravitated toward it. Thinking about it didn't inspire the best of feelings within him though. There were a few reviewers who said that putting the entire cast into it was a mistake.

A send off that didn't have everyone there? Seriously? Screw those guys.

Oh well. There was no time to think about that right now. His situation was only getting worse. He could practically feel the black hole forming at the edge of his pockets. Yakko's attempts to change that were going exactly nowhere and Wakko's behavior was just making it that much harder.

"… Darnit Wakko…" Yakko muttered as he reached the water tower.

Wakko knew their situation too but had decided to take it into his own hands on how to deal with it. Stealing, pestering innocent people, loafing about, and not doing a goddamn helpful thing were at the top of that list. Yakko let all his younger brother's exploits run through his mind as he climbed to the top. It made him angrier and angrier and he didn't wish to be honestly. He loved his brother and hated scolding him but this had been the final straw. When he found out that Wakko had stolen the Golden key to the company's most vital safe, it just blew his gasket. They could've gone directly to prison for that, despite their ages.

Yakko pushed the door open and peered his now angry eyes ahead. His little sister, and the youngest of the three Warners, Dot, stood beside the couch where the middle child, Wakko, sat while playing a video game. He had a very solemn and annoyed look on his face. It was as if Yakko had already started yelling at him.

"Wakko! Turn that junk off! I had to deal with your nonsense again so no games!" Yakko shouted in his direction.

Wakko slumped his head forward and stared directly into the T.V screen, as if doing so would somehow cause Yakko's voice to quiet down and muse him to go away. It only made it louder.

"I'm talking to you! Over here!" Yakko stomped over and stood directly in front of the screen, which immediately set Wakko off despite his determination to not be phased by Yakko's "older brother mode".

"Darnit! What is it?" Wakko shouted at his brother's intrusive body.

"You know exactly what I'm talking to you about. That incredibly stupid move you pulled where you stole Plotz' sacred key."

"He was asking for it." Wakko was swift with his words. "Hopefully he learned a lesson about keeping that thing at the edge of his pocket because his wallet was too fat for it to go in all the way." He shot back, ignoring that Plotz had a second pocket that most likely held his wallet just fine.

Dot watched the scene with an uncomfortable look on her face. She hated these fights. They were a lot more frequent than they used to be and Dot could never find the drive to interrupt. Whenever she did, she'd either be ignored or told to shut up anyway.

"Right, I'm totally sure he was. Just as you're asking for the three of us to be kicked out of here or thrown in the slammer. Am I right?" Yakko bent over a bit to face Wakko. Wakko simply looked to the side to avoid his gaze.

"If I hadn't been caught, we could've worked a plan out to extract all the money we needed whenever we wanted. It was worth a shot." Wakko's retort came rather coldly. It was a reply that made it seem like he was pinning Yakko as the one who didn't care about his family.

"No it was not "Worth a shot". All it did was make the studio even more intolerant of us, which may I remind you, we can't afford to have happening to us as of now." Yakko pressed on.

"Why not? The rate you're going, we'll be starved and homeless in no time. At least I was being creative rather than kissing Plotz' stout behind whenever I could." Wakko let his gaze fixate slightly on Yakko as he said that.

"Trying to do things the right way instead of assuredly making it worse for us is most certainly going to land us on the streets quicker. You know this. Screw creativity. I'm afraid how much of a potential for art you have matters little when you're too busy stealing from the studio head!" Yakko shouted, not even noticing how Dot had backed away slightly.

"He deserved it! He knows what situation we're in and he can't just let us live here?" Wakko asked.

"It doesn't work like that Wakko! Someone has to pay for the rent to this place. We're the residents here so that's us!"

"And where are you gonna get the money? Those loans and that cash you have stored up can only carry us so far. I haven't had a decent meal in weeks, BIG brother. " Wakko emphasized the "Big" as if to taunt his status. Yakko had to admit. Wakko was great at pushing his buttons.

"You're a garbage disposal. Eat normally like the rest of us and maybe you wouldn't have a problem." Was the older sibling's retort.

"You're just making excuses now."

"No I'm not! Everytime you do something stupid like this, I have to take the heat from Plotz and that means more money coming out of my pocket that I don't have! Stop fooling around and get your act together! This isn't funny Wakko! You're practically driving us into the gutter!"

If there was a reply to be stated, Wakko couldn't think of it quick enough.

"… Whatever." Wakko tossed the controller on the couch and marched off to his room. Yakko watched him go with a face frozen in anger before it melted away at the sound of Wakko's door slamming. As if that sound were somehow a switch to Yakko's exterior, he immediately slumped onto the couch with his body draped over the cushions. All that yelling had probably gotten him nowhere.

"… God…DAMMIT Wakko!" Yakko shouted and punched the arm of the couch, with his head buried into the cushion at the farthest edge. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why his brother insisted on acting this way! Whereas Yakko had changed throughout the coarse of Animaniacs run, granting him a calmer, slightly parental aspect about himself, Wakko's change was as immediate as the show's ending. That's what caused it. He was so bitter and ignorant now. It was a direct contrast to the happy, smiling, fun-loving and surprisingly caring younger brother from before.

Dot had changed too… though it wasn't a drastic change like Wakko's. She had just gotten quieter and more reserved than before. He couldn't even remember the last time he saw her laugh that cute, dorky laugh of hers really. Yakko turned his head and saw Dot standing there with her arms behind her back, a delicate frown on her face.

Oh yeah… she was in the room too… Dammit.

Yakko sat up and sighed before smiling. "You hungry?"

Dot managed a tiny smile and shook her head, despite her hand placing itself gently on her stomach.

Yakko stared at her as if analyzing the scene and smiled again. He hoped off the couch, walked over, and pulled her into a genuine hug. She hugged him back instantly.

"You're not lying right? You don't have to. We can still afford food despite what Wakko said." Yakko mused.

"… I know… but somehow I doubt you'd eat anything we got." Dot said back.

She was right. Yakko's eating habits have been rather spastic and strange for a long while now. It was even worse considering…

Yakko suddenly let go of Dot and turned to cough. He coughed hard and loudly for about 30 seconds before clearing his throat and shaking his head. Dot's frown returned.

"… Besides which, I think it's better to save up what we can for treatment of your illness." Dot finished.

"It's just a bug. A really, really annoying bug that won't go away…" Yakko said, effectively knowing he had no idea what he was talking about. It was obvious to Dot, to him, to Wakko even, that he was sick. At first it wasn't a big deal. The cough came and stayed for a few days. Than those days turned to weeks and those weeks into months. During that time, Yakko had woken up in very cold sweats, feeling chilly despite the relatively warm temperature of the Water Tower. He would spontainously get dizzy spells time and again and even passed out once before. It was all very odd and seemingly arose from no where.

What was even scarier was the fact that despite him being obviously sick, no one had been able to pin-point what exactly it was that Yakko had. Hello Nurse didn't know. The main doctors didn't know. It was a mystery to pretty much everyone that they could afford to have it looked at. The symptoms didn't seem all that different from an intense cold but that did little to convince him.

"At this point I don't think either of us will buy that." Dot started up again.

"… Yeah I know. You're not stupid. Neither is Wakko, believe it or not." Sighing as he admitted it, Yakko stumbled to the couch again and sat down. He had just realized how big a headache he suddenly had. This stress was not the best medicine for whatever it was he had caught. He buried his head into his hands while contemplating all this at once.

He was too young to have all this weight on his shoulders. It was too much. Way too much.

Yakko felt Dot's hand on his shoulder suddenly. Yakko looked up slightly to see her staring back at him with that same sad yet concerned smile he had grown used to seeing so often.

"You need a tissue? Maybe a shoulder?" Dot smiled.

Yakko didn't know what she was talking about at first but than realized it when he saw his eyes blur. Apparently he had been tearing up without noticing it. Yakko looked stunned before smirking and rubbing his eyes. He than put his head on Dot's shoulder and rubbed his cheek into it.

"Yes. That'd be lovely mommy. Tell me a story while you're at it." He joked, which made Dot chuckle lightly.

"You're still an expert at playing this stuff off. Don't ever lose that ability of yours okay?" She challenged.

Yakko lifted his head up and wiped the slight dampness on his face away. "No need to worry. I've got sarcastic quips to last a lifetime." He said resisting the urge to add that he wished for the money to match it.

Dot stayed by his side a little longer in order to make sure he was okay entirely before going off to bed when she thought he was currently feeling alright. As soon as she was gone though, the smile Yakko had worked up disappeared and he shoved his face into his hands once more.

He sat there with the clock ticking seemingly louder than usual on the wall. It always seemed to do that in the dead of night. He let it ring in his ears for a good while longer before slapping his lap and standing up. He paced the room, went into the kitchen just to open the fridge door and close it a few times and then eventually settled for keeping himself stood up against the counter with his eyes drilling into the floor.

He stayed like that for a long time as well.

Eventually, that time was up too.

"… Still nothing. I can't think of a single thing…" Yakko concluded.

With that, he finally decided to retire to bed. Going to bed always seemed like the best course of action to follow up whatever situation had happened during the day. When you're asleep, the world and its problems can't reach you.

He'd wish for it to last forever but if it did then he might as well be dead.

The next morning, Yakko found himself trouncing around the Warner Bros. lot. He had been looking for someone kind enough to give him a ride to the store to spare him the unbearably long walk or the bus full of creepy people but so far had not managed to get anywhere.

Eventually he found himself at the front of the main office building with his back to the side of the wall. He let out a tremendously frustrated and gritty sigh and stamped his foot on the ground. Not even that got the attention of those passing by.

"Maybe if I screamed like Chewbacca and lit myself on fire they'd at least glance in my direction…" Yakko said bitterly. If only he could remember how to be annoyingly imposing on people's everyday lives like before. However, considering how crappy his everyday life had become, inconveniencing the lives of others seemed like a villainous thing to do.

"Hello Yakko."

Yakko looked up immediately at the mention of his name and smiled brightly at the person in front of him.

It was Co-star and friend, Skippy Squirrel.

"Skippy. Kiddo, how ya been?" He asked, standing straight up now. It was an attempt to look a lot more grown up than he had felt he'd been acting recently.

"I'm fine." Skippy, the little boy responded with a cheeky smile. "I'm just here to pick up Aunt Slappy's final pay-check for the show."

"Oh… off to see Mr. Plotz than…" Yakko turned toward the building's front door. He didn't know why, but he looked and felt disappointed.

"… You okay? You look a little down. Is that cold you have gone yet?" Skippy asked, a heartfelt bit of concern in his voice.

Yakko decided to lie. "I'm perfectly fine. I'm just looking for a ride to the store."

"You want to use my bike?" Skippy chimed in almost immediately.

"Y-Your bike? You have a bike? Where is it?" Yakko stopped himself before he continued on, thinking himself a bit too eager to see it. He stood his ground and scratched his cheek with his finger while looking to the side.

"I'm guessing that's a yes." Skippy spoke up again, his face looking uncharacteristically smug.

Yakko sighed, now blushing for some reason. "Right. Obvious aren't I? Still, I can't accept-"

"It's fine. I used it to get here but I prefer walking and using the trees to get wherever I need to go. We got it for free at a Garage Sale and I was planning on selling the thing again anyway. It's too tacky looking for most people's tastes. Take it. Really." Skippy shoved the key to the lock of the two-wheeler into Yakko's hand to seal the deal and strolled to the door. It didn't seem like he wanted Yakko's consent at all.

"W-Wait! I can't… I-I mean…" Yakko stuttered and looked flustered. It didn't help when he saw Skippy looking back at him with the cleanest, nicest smile he had received from anyone all day.

"… I-I mean… thank you… I'll… take good care of it."

"Hehe. You're welcome. It's right there on that bike rack behind you. See ya." With that Skippy closed the door behind him as he went into the office. Yakko mentally smacked himself for not remembering that there was a back rack right there. He must've been really out of it in relation to his surroundings.

Was that another side effect to whatever it was he had for a sickness?

Yakko shook his head and decided not to dwell on it. He had been granted a gift from heaven in the form of a little boy's bicycle. As embarrassing as it was he was going to accept it. He needed to get to the store and pick up something for them to finally eat aside from scraps and leftovers.

"I just hope Wakko doesn't cause any trouble while I'm gone. If it's not one thing it's another."

Daytime passed and the night time sky shown with stars across the sky. Another day had come and gone for the town of Burbank.

"I'm back Aunt Slappy." Skippy chimed in happily as he skipped into his house and swiftly shut the door behind him. There his Aunt was, sitting on her favorite chair, flipping through channels from sheer constant boredom but with a smile on her face none the less.

"Fantastic. You got the check right?" Slappy asked turning toward her nephew.

"They were eager to give yours to me in cash." Skippy smirked.

"Haha! That's just wonderful." Slappy turned off the T.V and let Skippy walk up to hand over the envelope. "You got yours too right?"

"Yup. It's a cool haul as always. I'm gonna make waves with this money." Skippy remarked. He had several checks stockpiled from his cartoons on Animaniacs and it excited him. Slappy looked him over and wondered if his young mind would be able to fathom that full time characters that started out at around Skippy's age used to make much more than that and still ended up living the life of a low class citizen. That tends to happen more when you associate with the Warner Bros Lot for some reason. Now that she thought about it, it probably would've been a good idea to accompany Skippy, as she'd have been able to kill two birds with one stone had she snooped around for a bit in regards to-

Slappy shook her head as she realized she was deep in thought while Skippy was pouring out his plans for the future. How heartless. Even for someone like her, she figured.

"All that sounds awesome, right Aunt Slappy? I'm gonna make it big after this. Like Bugs Bunny maybe." Skippy chirped happily.

"Or me! Just in case you wanna go the extra mile!" Slappy grinned.

Skippy rushed in to hug her. "I'd never be as good as you Aunt Slappy."

"… Aww. I'm touched. Truly. But don't ever limit yourself like that. The world is a tougher place to make it in as a cartoon than you think. Yeah, I'm talented for sure but I'm also confident and stubborn as all hell." Slappy said while sitting Skippy on her lap.

Slappy was truly a successful cartoon veteran. Not only did she have a hit selection of cartoons from her hay-day that granted her a considerable amount of fame and awards but she also managed to get back into the lime-light with her run in Animaniacs. Someone as old as her coming back into cartoons as the lead of her own shorts had been virtually unheard of. Was it too much to hope for something better for Skippy?

"Okay. I'll remember that than." Skippy chuckled. Slappy couldn't help but love that smile of his. Maybe she was just a sucker for how unconditional his love for her was. "I hope Yakko gets back on his feet soon though."

"Eh? Why? Something happen to him?" Slappy asked. Controversy was something she needed to be apart of.

"He seems a lot sadder than usual. I dunno… " Skippy slumped a bit with a sigh before perking up with a question. "They were locked in that Water Tower for 60 years right? I heard they're paying rent for it now. What sense does that make?"

"…" Slappy was tapping her foot and thinking. That comment about those 60 years got her thinking about it again…

Skippy seemed to notice this and looked her over quizzingly before a rather innocent answer to his own question popped into his head.

"Oh yeah! No duh! It's because they made that up for the show. Sorry, my brain lapsed for a second there. Guess I was a bit too angry." Skippy prodded on. "Something like that would have to mean they didn't age at all while inside of it right? That's not possible. I mean, you're a little over 60 yourself Aunt Slappy and you've aged too."

"… Yeah…" Slappy spoke solemnly before butting in again. "… But there's some truth to that 60 years comment…"

"Huh?" Skippy perked up. "R-Really?"

"… There don't exist any cartoons who can live for over 60 years and not age considerably like I do. Some have a unique ability to keep their body in their prime, certainly, but not all. In order for me to do that, I'd have to go in for Cartoon Surgery and the idea itself already fills me with dread. How Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse can continuously do that without their pride being shredded to pieces confuses the hell outta me. Than again that process costs money; the kind of money you can only have if you were a Loony Toon or a member of the House of Mouse. Anyway, our lives CAN, not WILL but they CAN, last considerably longer than a human's. But our times all come eventually and our bodies reflect that. Any random person ignorant to how cartoons are, and trust me when I say that there are literally millions of people like that, won't bat an eye when we say they were locked in a tower for 60 years and came out looking exactly the same. For the rest of us… it's creepy. Really, really creepy." Slappy explained. A torrent of words had just exploded from her mouth in a sudden burst.

It was like she was finally letting something huge get off her chest.

"… Y-You're saying that… them being in the tower for 60 years is the truth… and there don't exist any cartoons who can stay that young for so long so… I don't… " Skippy looked genuinely shocked. What did this mean?

Slappy was slowly realizing the magnitude of what she was revealing to Skippy but figured that, as of now, there was no point in turning back. It was still just a hunch but Skippy was smart. He could handle being let in on this secret.

"… Here. Let me show you something interesting." Aunt Slappy, quickly brought up her purse and flipped through the items inside for something. The sudden action took Skippy by surprise.

"What is it?"

"Hang on a sec. Here we go."

Slappy held up a stack of pictures and put it forth in front of her and Skippy so he could see clearly.

"I want to test your intuitive skills a bit. Here's a picture of the Warner Brothers lot and the tower at the center taken just a few weeks ago." Slappy spoke with a sly stillness to her voice. It didn't go unnoticed. Skippy knew that something was up.

"Okay…" Skippy remarked simply as he grabbed the stack for himself.

"Flip back a photo and you'll see a picture of the same thing taken 5 years ago." She spoke again. Skippy did so, and he saw the same thing. "Keep flipping. It goes further down the time-line."

Skippy continued to do so. With each picture he flipped a different year was revealed onto him.

"10 years ago."

"20 years ago."

"30 years ago."

Did Aunt Slappy take all these pictures by herself? Why? And for what reason?

"40 years ago."

"50 years ago."

"60 years ago."

Skippy flipped through them all until he eventually reached the last one; a picture taken from the 1930s.

"… Every year… you go and take a picture of the Water Tower? Why?" Skippy asked finally.

Slappy smiled and looked straight ahead, as if leering into the past. "I was acentric when I was a little girl and I like the view. I'm old but I'm not ancient though, so I doubt I was able to even hold a camera at that age. I think right now, I'm 60-something but whatever. I've never been too big on birthdays aside from yours."

Skippy would've made a comment on how silly it was to not know your own age but he decided against it.

"It was something I did off the fly the first two times but I started to look into it on purpose some time later at a time when the head of the studio pointed out something interesting about the tower. The people on the lot barely go anywhere close to it. No maintenance or work is done on it at all. So why is it there? Don't know. Still don't. But the pictures reveal onto me something even crazier." Slappy explained and pointed at the stack in Skippy's hands.

"What's that?" Skippy asked, wanting to know where this was going.

"Come now. You're smart. Look through them again." Slappy urged.

Skippy nodded and flipped through them all some more. It was the same lot with the same picture of the same water tower at the center. Nothing was different. Absolutely nothing. They all looked the same.

The second that sentence fluttered across his mind it hit him like a ton of bricks.

With that realization also came a very eerie sensation.

"The water tower… in every picture… it looks exactly the same…"

Over 60 years of standing in the center of the lot without maintenance or an upgrade.

Not a single thing about it was different.